Theresa Collier, a 73 year-old grandmother, was arrested and sent to jail after slapping her 18 year-old granddaughter across the face. Collier had invited her granddaughter, Felicia, to her home to use her computer; the troubled teenager had recently been expelled from Catholic school in Massachusetts - after cursing at a nun - and is currently working towards completing her senior year online. When Collier insisted one time too many that her granddaughter remain focused on her studies, the trouble began.

“She kept repeating the F-word to me, about the whole family. She just went on and on and I just got so upset, I got up and slapped her across the face,” she told a local television news station in Tampa Bay. After the heated altercation, the 18 year-old called the police, who cuffed the stunned grandmother and carted her off to jail, where she spent the next 24 hours. Police officer Lt. Mike Loux explains, “Legally she’s 18-years-old, so while I understand the difference between corporal punishment on a child for using poor language, this is an 18-year-old child. If an officer on scene finds probable cause to arrest a person, because they’ve committed domestic battery, then our policy is a mandatory arrest of that person.” Collier has suffered enormous stress throughout the ordeal, as has her husband Walter. “My wife of 52 years went to Catholic Parochial school,” he tearfully explained, “went to church, she’s a good strong Catholic and raised four kids and no one ever spoke to her like that.”

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